An online journal in which members of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar document their noble efforts.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Let Them Eat Cake

Dear SPOGG:

A teacher whom I work with recently gave a grammar worksheet to her class. In correcting the students' work, I realized that I wasn’t sure about one of the items.

The item in question read: A good girl like (I, me, my) deserves some cake.

The students were to circle the word within the parenthesis that completed the sentence correctly. Initially, I thought that inserting “me” was correct. However, after separating the sentence, which is what I was taught to do when dealing with “me vs. I” personal pronoun debates, the sentence read to my dismay: “Me deserves some cake.” I am battling with myself, please help!

Dear Cake Eater:

To answer this, I will quote from The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

"And would you write 'The worst tennis player around here is I' or 'The worst tennis player around here is me'? The first is good grammar, the second is good judgment — although the me might not do in all contexts.

In other words, use your ears. And then go have some cake.

P.S. SPOGG believes it should be a girl "such as" me, and not like. We confess we are having a hard time wrapping our heads around the rule. But we promise, when we totally get it, we will hold forth.